Hotels of distinction!

Staying at Las Vegas Hotels is something else! Over the years working with my client there I've been lucky to stay at a variety of great hotels - this year it's the Palazzo, last year it was Mandalay Bay and before that a couple of times at the Paris and Caesar's Palace. It's useful for me to experience first hand how some of these top hotels do things - I work with a lovely independently owned hotel in Leicester which is constantly investing in upgrading their facilities and services - visit http://www.belmonthotel.co.uk/ and there are things I can draw from what I see in the US that come in useful back home.



Las Vegas is incredibly theatrical, it takes a while to appreciate, because first glance for us Brits creates that 'is this for real?' feeling, but these hotels are really very clever. In the middle of the desert what do they have? Sunshine year round, gambling, girls, but also real luxury, designer clothes stores and great shows. No expense is spared and it's all about fun, fun, fun and treating yourself. Apparently the Bellagio Hotel has more Michelin starred chefs than the whole of Paris - quite some accolade.

Viva Las Vegas!

I thought it might be fun to blog from Las Vegas where I've been since the weekend at the fabulous World Market Center for the Las Vegas September market. The doom and gloom that's hit the furniture industry this year appears to have been banished here - there's energy, excitement and glitz and where better to work hard and play hard than Vegas!

The spirit of this city seems to permeate through the business done here - optimism rules. The end of the working day merely heralds the beginning of party time - yesterday, to celebrate Mexican Independence Day there was tequila, Mexican dancers, music and fun, and for me that was just the aperitif. Fabulous dining at the Wynn, followed by dancing at Blush and very little sleep - truly Las Vegas!

Sunny Italy!

Been meaning to blog every since we all got back from sunny Italy! What a delightful two weeks, sunshine, sunshine, sunshine - great food, great wine and more sunshine! La Passione (http://www.lapassionevilla.co.uk/) really is the most wonderful place to rent - glorious house with pool, tennis court and olive grove, in the middle of nowhere in Le Marche where no-one speaks English - tested my pigeon Italian somewhat. Only when you get away do you realise the benefits of switch-off time, only two weeks later and I'm still sitting at my computer at 7.30 p.m. when I really should have a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, oops sorry Prosecco in my hand! My children are having a wonderful summer despite the UK's somewhat tricky weather - this week it's Rutland Water for sailing, windsurfing, kayaking and more high jinks - thank heavens for my husband for sorting it all out for them. Seems a lifetime ago when my summers used to involve lots of sailing, canooing, haymaking and harvesting - suppose it was decades ago - whoops.

Design Leicestershire

Went to the launch of the Design Leicestershire book last night at Athena in Leicester where I bumped into a fellow delegate from the original Microsoft course on blogging that I went on. He asked if I was still musing and I suddenly remembered that actually I haven't blogged for about a month, so it's about time I did!

The book, with its distinctive yellow and black logo, outlines Leicestershire's rich history in design and brings the reader up to date with the movers and shakers in the county's design community today. Why a book in today's internet age? Peter Hogarth, the International Trade Director for UKTI East Midlands got it in a nutshell - yes websites are important, but in his line of work there is still a place for a substantial printed directory with gravitas which international delegations can be shown when they visit the UK and which can be used overseas to generate new business. My copy's on the coffee table in my office and I will be showing it to my overseas clients whenever they visit me.

The design industry contributes a huge amount to the UK economy, as witnessed by the Cox Report. It doesn't just revolve around London, the wealth of great designers and marketers based here in Leicestershire is something we should be shouting about - so I am - consider this shouting!

Google conference

Went to a great google conference called 'Survival of the Fastest' in London this month as part of my striving to keep up to date with what's what in new media! The speakers were really good - the sessions were focussing on adwords and Arjan Dijk of Google started with an overview of the marketplace and an explanation of how google can have a huge impact on trading within a recession. Two case studies from Chemist Direct www.chemistdirect.co.uk and from Big Red Book www.bigredbook.com were fascinating as was a fictitious case study presented by two googlers.

For me, the most valuable lesson was that Google exists and has a presence in the UK and Ireland - so many people cold call our office trying to sell us google related 'expertise' that it was refreshing to find that it's actually quite easy to talk to a real googler! I'll be putting my new found expertise into action very soon ...

What a great foodie week last week!

What a great foodie week it was last week. The Italian Chamber of Commerce had set up a cookery school at Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi's La Cuccina Caldesi on Marylebone Lane and Jane and I joined food journalists and enthusiasts for some lessons in making ravioli, a main course of chicken stuffed with pecorino cheese and wrapped in proscuitto and some melt in the mouth 'pudding'. All used protected status (PDO/PGI) foods from Tuscany and the quality of the ingredients really sang through. As a reward for our hard work cooking all afternoon, we were driven to Bray to Caldesi in Campagna for a mouthwatering meal with the food producers and journalists. (http://www.caldesi.com/)

The next day saw a seminar at the City Inn Hotel where food experts talked to us about the EU scheme of protected status foods and we got to sample the Tuscan PDO/PGI foods in particular. Helen joined Jane and I to welcome the journalists attending and we had a really interesting day, broadening our food industry experience still further.